Flexible & Flowing - The Water Element
The Sacral Chakra. "Women you are the keeper of the water."
*Billabong Dreaming is my water song and meditation. Please watch it too. It is dedicated to saving Barka, the Darling river in Australia, it is dedicated to cleaning and clearing the sacred springs of England and the world.
To holding ceremonies again and giving thanks.
Become flexible with Yin & Restorative Yoga
There are 4 free yoga classes in this section of the course and 3 extra classes.
We need to grow stronger...slowly.. but most of us also need to regain flexibility by learning to be still and relax.
Practicing Yin & Restorative yoga makes you more flexible. I am living proof. I was getting stiffer over the years and had a sore back and hip when I first started yoga. I have learnt... and it wasn't easy, to hold an asana and relax.
My mind would want me to keep me moving.
What next? How much longer? Whats the point? This is boring...With time and patience (never one of my strong points) the internal chatter dissolved with my breath and peace and softening finally joined me as I practiced.
Find presence, poise and grace in the gentle asana first.
Yin & Restorative positions are mainly practiced sitting or lying down and are held for much longer periods of time.
Yin Yoga asana are held for 2 to 3 minutes. This gives your muscles and mind the opportunity to relax and let go and as this happens over time you move deeper into the posture.
Restorative yoga is much more gentle and nurturing and can be held for even longers, often with supports such as pillows.
Yin & Restorative yoga help free your body and mind from injury, pain, suffering. Both mental and physical
I usually adapt a class I am practicing at home for teaching everyone but this class is not adapted.
Notice frustration if you can't practice some of the postures in this class, accept this and learn to be adaptable. Find an alternative become an experienced "yogi"
Emotions surface with the water classes in particular and like life they are not always "feel good."
YOGA CLASS 2/ Saraswati Wisdom is an intermediate to advanced class.
Find joy and grace with flow yoga
Flow yoga is beautiful to practice, very feminine and graceful.
Instead of holding the asana we move with the breath.
If you can't relax, if you can't sit still. Then flow........
Add specific mudra, add music or mantra
and yoga becomes a spiritual practice.
It raises your spirit...hard to describe but easier to feel.
My flow classes have been choreographed by me as I practiced at home, whilst listening to Sacred Earth.
I loved practicing them so much I wanted to share them. My yoga students love them and it encouraged me to share them with you.
The more you know your routine the quicker your mind will settle.
Make sure you know the postures well before flowing.
In one of the Moon Flows I am sitting in lotus but you might be sitting in a chair or cross legged.
Learn to adapt and enjoy yoga. Too often I see student's forcing themselves to go deeper, this is an important lesson.
Be gentle and your body will relax and soften, push and your body will stiffen and protect itself.
Links to two flow yoga classes
YOGA CLASS 3/The Moon Flow Class is a favourite of many of my students.
The first 10 minutes is standing and can be practiced by everyone with care.Take your time to learn Shakti Mudra before you begin - Essence of feminine power hand gesture. If it is too challenging for your fingers place the tips of your fingers together and practice Hakini or Prayer. A student told me Shakti Mudra was too difficult for her, so we adapted. Thanks for your feedback Vicki❤*At the bottom of this page, you will find Moon Work a fortnightly guide to help bring you back insync with the feminine cycle of the moon. Time to look up at the sky, enjoy the dark, the yin, the cool & calm.
Recommended Books. I found them both in the local library and then bought them.
Lunar Abundance by Izzy Spencer. Moonology by Yasmin Bowland
Both are wonderful guides to inspire you to live a beautiful and happy life.
YOGA CLASS 4/ Sacral Chakra Class is beginner/intermediate and also lovely to practice.
Learn a lovely sun & moon flow with 5 hand gestures to balance the energies of earth, water, fire, air and space. Then move into Yin asana for flexible hips and lower back.
*THERE ARE 3 EXTRA TEACHING CLASSES AND MEDITATIONS for guided students
1/ The beautiful & gentle Tree of Life flow class which ends with a face and neck massage.
*Now available to buy as a download or I can send you the YouTube link.
Click here to purchase The Tree of Life Yoga Class
2/A restorative, yin moon flow class with a lovely bridge flow ends with the Water Yantra teaching meditation.
3/Yogic Healing Class - The place of the Moon, increasing ojas the nectar of life.
Link to the teaching meditation - Orange Stone.
This meditation encourages you to create a beautiful life.
It is one of the chakra or rainbow teachings
One of my students gave up her job after practicing it in class.
I was a little shocked when she told me.
She then struggled with what to replace a job she didn't enjoy with and also not earning "her keep"
She has now started her own charity to help underprivilaged women in our society and realises her true value is not how much money she earns.
Oranges & Orange Essential Oil
An important healing fruit and oil for Kapha Dosha. Newsletter July 2021
Bird Song
Spend at least 2 months on this section of yoga classes & meditations as you work your way through Weeks 9 - 16 of Bird Song
My body & mind began to change quickly when I started my Yin Yoga Teacher Training.
I was once average health & flexibility, getting a bit stiffer through the years.
Learning to be still.
Now I am incredibly flexible...it happened through learning to relax & let go.
Learning Ocean Breath.
Dropping into my favourite restorative yoga positions any time of the day, in bed before sleep and sometimes at night when waking with a hot flush.....
Once you learn all this, yoga becomes an essential part of your life.
You start to feel the changes and you become more intuitive as you practice.
You may make up your own class. Be your own Guru.
This is the missing part of many yoga classes, the feminine.
The Rainbow Teachings
MAKE YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL HEALTH TREATMENT PLAN
Stay and work on the Sacral Chakra if you have problems in your lower spine, pelvis and hips, your circulatory/lymphatic system. If you are emotionally going through guilt, grief, depression.
Buy a Health Diary. Write down your symptoms. Then make yourself a treatment plan.
Write down 10 things you will do every day (don't feel guilty if you don't do them, you are learning.)
Here is an example.
1/ 10 Minute Moon Flow Daily.
2/ 10 Minute Orange Stone Meditation 3 x a week
3/ Buy yourself a beautiful bright dress and wear it once a week. Orange and reds.
4/ Buy a carnelian crystal bracelet and wear it.
5/ Clean the house using a couple of drops of eucalyptus oil on your cloth.
6/ Chant Vam
7/ Write out an affirmation for yourself. "I am learning to create a beautiful life." For example
Repeat it in the mirror, whenever you see your reflection.
8/ Have a bath or swim in the ocean
9/ On the Full Moon sit and write down in your diary everything you are grateful for...
10/ Practice the restorative class Relax.Relax..Relax...once a week.
Learn more about the affects of the Water Element - In my Newsletter.
Orange - Wear the colour, or crystals such as carnelian
Sacral Chakra - Found just bellow the belly button. The yoga asana and classes move your body in this area, stimulating and cleansing.
Vam - The chant for an imbalance in this area
Physical focus - The asana build strength and flexibility in the lower spine, pelvis & hips.
They also stimulate and cleanse the water element in your body and improve the function of the circulatory and lymphatic system as well as digestion and reproductive health.
Musical Note D - Singing bowls can be purchased to balance this area with sound healing. Buy a bowl for the Sacral Chakra. I recommend the Tibet Shop. Or sing your favourite songs.
Uddiyana Bandha - Not sure what this is? Go back to my Foundations of Yoga video.
Apana Vayu - Cleansing Breath - As you breathe in feel the breath flowing down and as you exhale, a softening as it moves up through your whole body. For more information on Apana Vayu see my Newsletter October 2020. I teach you how to experience it in the Moon Flow
The Moon - Start practicing the fortnightly Moon Work and stop and look up and breathe in the moon whenever you see her in the sky.
Mudra for the Water Element - Learn Shakti Mudra & Varuna Mudra in my Moon Flow. The finger which represents this element is the little finger
The West - The teachings for the 4 directions are in my Earth Yantra Meditation - Purchase in Webshop
Turn to the West - Watch the sunsets and begin to add more of natures magic to your life.
Winter - Can increase this energy because it is cool and damp.
Ayurvedic Treatment for colds & flus August 2018
Easy Chai for colds & flu August 2019
Relax.Relax..Relax...
Moon Work. What do you think?
Can following the Moon guide you to a better life?
My newest qualification - I am now a Certified Moonologer with Yasmin Boland and it has taken my practice to a much deeper level which I wish to share with you
What is Moonology?
The Moon is part of the water element teachings. Connecting to the feminine energy.
Connect with natures "moon"ths and cycles and use the knowledge for self-study of your own months and cycles.
To help plan and change your life, follow your heart and create and live a beautiful life.
Become healthier in Body - asana, herbs, diet.
Mind - breathing exercise, mantra, yantra, mudra.
Spirit - feeling part of nature, part of everything, whole. (Following the moonthly cycles)
The health system of Yoga & Ayurveda is interconnected through an understanding of the elements of Earth. Water. Fire. Air. Space.
Full Moon in Sagittarius
4th June here in Australia
Iv'e drawn one of my Faery Forest cards by Lucy Cavendish as a reading for you and me. The Hedgewitch...the first thing I felt was a reaction, a fear of the word witch. Once upon a time it meant a special women who practiced some form of healing; they were revered in society and they used their knowledge for the good of all. Many were murdered or they hid in "plain sight," the teachings have survived in story and song and "folk" tradition. When I started talking about the moon on my Empire Bay Yoga Facebook page, I began to get quite a lot of new followers and then it was disabled in November 2022. You can still look at it but I can no longer post anything. It scared me a little and I started to read more and learn more about how women's ways have been and still are suppressed.
Time to rise, to step up, to help save the water, the earth. It begins within you, healing yourself, facing your fears, honouring your ancestor's. So what advice does the Hedgewitch give, does she cast wicked spells, make poisonous potions?
"You are being asked to consider herbal forms of healing - working with what is in between, effective and yet natural, available and yet hardly acknowledged. Changing the foods you eat to include more greens and herbs to boost energy and health and begin to pay very serious attention to the quality of the food you eat - again, with a very close focus on the world of herbs and plants." Why don't you start reading my book Bird Song? You'll learn so much, including family favourite vegetarian recipes. If this is witch craft, we need to embrace it. Because if we choose not to eat foods sprayed with toxins or GMO foods, less will be used, companies will have to look at more natural and sustainable methods of agriculture and we are helping save the water, the earth, the frogs, the birds...it's your choice.
A new moon is a time to start again. Another month. Another opportunity. A new beginning.
The Yang of Life.
After the full moon it is time to rest, to nourish, to let go, to be still and listen.
The Yin of Life.
Black New Moon in Taurus-Abundance
20th May in Sydney at 1.53am
What does abundance look like to you?
Do you think of yoga as important work?
A body of work. Your physical health is a life times work.
I believe yoga is the most important work you can do for the health of your body, mind and spirit.
What could have more value?
Not a car, a house, a holiday.
Not everyone is ready to take responsibility for their health and well- being. But you are.
Try this beautiful class and give your body, mind and spirit a gift.
Keep reaping the rewards.
Namaste Julie
Ready to add another layer of knowledge?
Each sign has different emotional teachings for living well.
Taurus is the bull. Stubborn or determined, it's a great time to focus on getting things done.
Have a lovely 2 weeks.
Moon Work ?
What sign will the next New Moon be in?
If your working with the Moon Cycles will you be practicing Hatha or Restorative Yoga after the next New Moon?
Which section of the Yoga & Ayurveda Course will you find the appropriate classes? What is the Element?
My Journal December 2021
If you are being guided through the course I will recommend special tea's, food and herbs. KAPHA DOSHA is a combination of the Earth & Water Element
Learning how to create and practice feminine and beautiful yoga classes has made yoga so much more of a spiritual practice for me. I have been practicing at home and adding some of them to my classes for years. It is deeply rewarding when someone tells me how much they enjoy the moon flow that I created or face massage.
So I was looking forward to practicing, flowing yoga with music again and I love Yin & Restorative Yoga but suprisingly, practicing this section was really tough. Things happened and things from the past resurfaced and I cried a lot!
I also had a lot of guilt which travel restrictions brought up ...my Mum is in England, struggling and isolated.
I am ready to move to the next section. I feel stronger now. I had to leave and live a different sort of life for my own spirit and well-being. I have learn't so much about myself. Most importantly I have forgiven myself and know that I made the right decision.
But it was good, good to acknowledge, to forgive myself, to cry.
Ready to learn more?
Section 3 - Full Of Energy